


listen to your heart

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Background DJWifi, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Left to Write Secret Santa, Lovesquare, Podfic Welcome, Secret Santa, adrienette - Freeform, anarka is only a responsible adult in the most technical sense, hinted adrigaminette, hinted adrino, hinted lukadrien, hinted lukadriennette, hinted lukanino, hinted marigami, holiday fluff, i swear this is lovesquare everyone just decided to have inconvenient crushes at the same time, im not kidding about those crushes, the Liberty is a place of chaos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21909118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: After last year, none of them want Adrien to have such an unhappy Christmas again.  Marinette's the first to start planning, naturally, but it doesn't take long for Alya and Nino to join her, and it doesn't take long after that for everyone else to join in as well.And Kagami seems like she could use a party too, doesn't she?  And Juleka's sure they can use the Liberty for it.Marinette's really trying not to worry too much this time.  She really is.She has enough to worry about it with the plans she'd made with Chat Noir.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Comments: 77
Kudos: 203





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kellarhi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kellarhi/gifts).



> merry Christmas, kellarhi, i was your secret santa! i really thought this was going to be a oneshot but it is DEFINITELY NOT (it _is_ lovesquare but it takes a DETOUR at the beginning)
> 
> thank you shinobicyrus for editing this!

"Alya. Nino," Luka repeats, tiredly, for the third time as Rose yawns and Juleka rubs at her eyes. "Guys, it's midnight." 

Alya squints down at her phone, tilting it as the screen flashes in the light off the water. "I know, that's why I'm here. Kim said M. Raincomprix never figured out how to enforce curfew on the Liberty." 

"I told you Kim can't keep secrets," Nino mutters through a yawn, carefully shifting his grip on one end of a tangle of Christmas lights. He's still not sure how he's gotten here, or why Luka and Juleka's mom is grinning down excitedly at them from up at the wheelhouse without making any attempt to stop the teenagers clambering onto her boat, or why Rose was here before any of the rest of them, actually, though he's not sure he has any plans to ask about that.

Luka raises one hand to pass it over his eyes, but he doesn't look much more alert after. He'd been awake and playing his guitar on deck when Nino had first climbed aboard ahead of Alya, though, so Nino's not terribly convinced they have anything to do with those dark circles. "I don't remember telling Kim that."

Juleka groans and drops her head onto Rose's shoulder, even though their height difference has to make that difficult. "You didn't tell him that, Sabrina did. Her dad kept complaining about us, I think she was trying to get Chloé to help."

"How ridiculous." Chloé's voice comes from the boarding plank as if summoned, even as she sniffs sharply and strides onto the ship. Sabrina herself is following behind her, clutching an armful of wrapped packages and looking around with something between unease and awe. 

Alya's eyebrows shoot into her hairline. "Whoa, you showed up? You showed up _early_." 

Chloé sniffs again, even as she directs Sabrina to where Alya and Nino have been trying and failing to set up a tree on the boat's prow. They have to keep moving band equipment aside and Nino is increasingly tempted to just give up and start draping lights over Ivan's drums instead. "Of course I am. I am always punctual."

Several snorts sound at that, scattered across the ship.

Chloé tosses her hair back with a huff and toes pointedly at a bundle of cables draped nearby before drawing back. "And I could hardly expect any of _you_ to know how to set this up to the right standards."

"It's midnight," Luka repeats, looking around as if he's still hoping for an explanation. "Also, it's the twenty first?"

"So no one told Luka?" Rose says, leaning back into her girlfriend and pressing her hands to her mouth, her eyes sparkling with mischief. 

"Well, we sort of expected you and Juleka to tell Luka," Alya says dryly. "Seeing as you _live here_ and all." She nods up towards the wheelhouse, where Anarka has abandoned all attempts at any pretence of being busy and is simply watching them all with undisguised glee. "Also it sure seems like your mom knows?"

"Telling Mom does _not_ count, she pretends to forget our birthdays so she can throw us surprise parties in a different month." Luka stops, eyebrows raising. "...Oh. So who is all the subterfuge- actually, never mind, I can guess." He tilts his head. "So is this just for Adrien, or are we including Kagami, too?"

“Adrien,” Chloé says firmly, but she’s overridden by Alya’s, "We're including Kagami.” 

Alya grunts as she finally manages to steady the tree and settle it securely on the deck. She looks very pleased with herself, until she steps back and sees Nathaniel and Marc are actually holding it in place. "When did- you know what, never mind. Think you two can handle getting that to stay?"

There are a couple of loud thumps, and Nino glances back to see that Ivan, Kim, and Max have arrived, too. "I think we'll figure it out between us all, Alya." 

Alya ducks past him and presses a kiss to his cheek as she goes. "Thanks, babe. I'm gonna see if Mylene and Alix are here with the mistletoe yet."

Nino blinks, eyes tracking her for a minute as she waves at someone who's still on dry land. "Wait, I thought Alix hated mistletoe."

"Alix does," Nathaniel agrees, coming up beside him and taking a trailing end of the lights. "But you know what Alix _loves_? Pranks."

Nino winces. "Oh, man. Marinette's the one getting Adrien and Kagami, isn't she."

Nathaniel shrugs. "I think Kagami'd only come out for Marinette or Adrien, honestly, and you _know_ they're all gonna be sufficiently distracted. The only way we could keep them from finding us all out for any longer is by throwing Luka at them too, and I think that's Alya's backup plan."

Nino glances swiftly around, because they are standing in Luka's _home_ and there is a very good chance he’d _heard_ that, but thankfully Luka's vanished somewhere by now. "Dude, are we just _trying_ to make them combust now?"

Alix shoves past him with an extremely distressing amount of mistletoe and determination. " _Yes_ , dammit, I have bets to collect on!"

Nino's answer to that is entirely lost when several people chorus, "Me too!"

He blinks up at Anarka, who had _definitely_ been part of that chorus. 

She grins back with too many teeth showing and resettles herself more firmly on the railing, still showing no inclination to either help them or stop them. 

Nino's very glad that _he_ doesn't live here.

"Juleka," Nino says, finally, unable to help himself, and his classmate looks up at him from where she's still curled around Rose. "Is this just, like-" He gestures helplessly up towards the wheelhouse, suddenly far too strongly reminded of Captain Hardrock. "Is your mom _always_ like this?"

"She's always like this," Rose confirms, looking way too happy about it. But then, Nino is coming to the slow realisation that despite having been in the same class for years now, he has _no idea_ where Rose lives. He always runs into her either with the class or on the Liberty.

Maybe Anarka can find some way to let Adrien and Kagami hang out here more often, too. She's certainly never seemed anything but proud of them for sneaking onboard before. 

"Guys?" At a timid voice from behind the tree, Nino looks over, only to wince when he sees Marc standing there with an armful of ornaments and a string of lights tangled around their right forearm. "Are we finishing this tree, or- ?"

"Be right there," Nino says hastily, trying to find the quickest route that doesn't take him over or through a bundle of cables. Once he has, though, getting the lights and ornaments on the tree goes far faster with Marc and Nathaniel's help. 

Chloé reappears from wherever she'd vanished to, loudly directing Sabrina to scatter gifts under the tree and then berating her immediately when they aren't as aesthetically pleasing as she wants them to be. 

Nino locks eyes with Luka over her shoulder as he reappears, and the older boy grins and hefts up what he'd gone to get- his own armful of gifts. His are all very haphazardly wrapped, a bright tumble of clashing colours and patterns and designs, and as Nino watches Luka hands several off to Rose and Juleka and raises a different gift for Nino to see. 

That one's wrapped in paper decorated in crabs and the words 'Sandy Claws,' and Nino hastily stifles his laughter before it can draw the wrath of Chloé.

Instead Nino slips away entirely, circling out of Chloé and Sabrina's line of sight to join Luka. 

"I thought you didn't know what we were doing here," Nino teases, leaning his shoulder against Luka's in a way he wouldn't with most people. Luka's different. Nino's heard both Marinette and Adrien talk about Luka more than a few times now, and as a result he's more than sold on the guy already. Anyone who can make _both_ his friends light up like that has to be someone special. 

"I didn't," Luka says, dryly. "I'm giving them Rose and Juleka's gifts, since they didn't tell me."

Nino's startled into laughing at that.

Juleka rolls her eyes as Rose grins. "He's really not, you know. He just buys extra gifts every year in case someone gets forgotten." She nudges him with her elbow affectionately. "Nerd."

"I know where you sleep," Luka threatens, but there's too much laughter in his voice for anyone to take him seriously.

There's a yell from over behind their tree, followed by a splash, and Nino sighs. "Well, there goes Kim."

Rose shrugs, undeterred. "He likes Adrien. He'll be back."

"Why do we let Kim anywhere near water at all anymore?" Nino wonders, taking several of the gifts himself as Rose darts off only to reappear with more. Nino's eyebrows go up; he helped Alya and Marinette plan most of this, he knows they hadn't thought about gifts until fairly late. At some point the party planning had turned into its own excuse to get the class together more often, which almost no one had objected to until Chloé started showing up to every meeting, but although she's still being... well, _Chloé_ , she likes Adrien enough to have kept her sniping to a minimum.

At least, most days she has been. Other days they've had to station someone on akuma watch. 

Usually that's worked.

Usually. 

Honestly, the few times they'd had to fight or run from an akumatised classmate had almost seemed like a welcome break from all the holiday themed akuma. Nino's pretty sure that Carapace has been called on more in the past few weeks than he had been over the entire summer, and Ladybug and Chat Noir have seemed exhausted each and every time. He'd actually heard Chat Noir _groan_ when a villain made a Christmas pun. 

Nino really hopes they're getting a break tonight, too. Part of his reason for that is selfish- he doesn't want to have to abandon the party if Carapace or Rena Rouge or both are needed- but most of it is honest concern for the more experienced heroes. 

The rest of the class, sans Marinette and Adrien and Kagami, arrives within the next twenty minutes and it's fairly quick to finish setting up once everyone is on board and ready to go.

Well, Kim is still in the Seine, but Nino has to admit it's probably faster without his help. 

Nino's back over by the tree, studying some of the gifts Luka had shown up with curiously, when Alya climbs partway up the mast and claps for attention.

(Anarka does not seem any more concerned about this than she has about anything else).

It still takes Nino a bit to focus on Alya again. That's because he's found the gift with the Sandy Claws wrapping paper that Luka had shown him earlier, and he's close enough now to see the tag. Apparently Luka hadn't _entirely_ been telling the truth about not having any gifts ready- Luka never wrote down who it was from, but the gift is clearly addressed to Adrien. 

Nino's willing to bet that means there's another one in there somewhere addressed to Marinette, too.

Alya starts giving a combination speech and pep talk, trying to make sure everyone's ready and that they can go ahead and signal Marinette, and Nino snorts as he hears Rose whisper, "What if we can't get her attention now, though?"

He had _tried_ to point that out as a flaw in Alya's plan. She'd dismissed it, but he doesn't think she'd really thought about it. 

She should have, because when she _does_ try to contact Marinette she doesn't get a response. 

Nino rolls his eyes and goes to find Luka, navigating carefully around where Max and Ivan are hauling Kim back onto the ship. 

Luka's retreated back to his room again, away from the noise and crowd, and he looks up when Nino knocks awkwardly on the wall to get his attention.

"What is it?" Luka sets his guitar aside and gives Nino his full attention instead. 

Nino almost takes a step back at the focused intensity in his eyes. No wonder Adrien had talked his ear off about Luka's eyes for days when he'd first met him. 

(Nino had opened his mouth a few times to tease Adrien about that, or at least to ask him if he even knew what he sounded like, but he'd never said anything in the end because he's not sure that Adrien _does_ know what he sounds like. And if he does, Nino doesn't want to see him any less happy about it). 

"Um," Nino says, outright forgetting his reason for searching out Luka for a minute. Shaking his head, hard, he says, "Marinette's not answering. Alya was pretty sure you'd be the best choice to figure out where they'd have gone?" 

Luka cocks his head at Nino, which doesn't diminish the brightness of his gaze any. "Wouldn't you be? For Adrien, at least. He talks about you all the time." 

...okay, Nino immediately has _several_ questions, but they do need to find Adrien and Marinette and Kagami - preferably quickly. Just because Sabrina's dad has never figured out how to enforce a curfew on Anarka's ship doesn't mean he won't _try_ , and while Nino's pretty resigned to the holiday akuma line-up already it's still a lot to deal with.

Nino closes his eyes for a moment and manages a slightly unsteady, "Maybe. Wanna help anyway, dude?" He rubs the back of his head, dislodging his hat by accident. "There's a lot of people onboard, it's a good chance to get away for a break." 

Luka gets up and swings his guitar onto his back in a fluid motion before reaching out to fix Nino's hat. "Sounds like I'm not the only one who could use one. Yeah, happy to help.” 

Nino swallows. He's starting to see more flaws in Alya's plans than either of them had been aware of. "Let me just let Alya know I'm going with you." 

Alya laughs too hard to speak at whatever she sees in Nino's face as he explains, then waves him off to trail after Luka. 

"Follow me," Luka says, softly, and then steps into the shadows along the riverwalk and vanishes. 

Nino stares for a moment, warring with himself, then follows Luka into the dark. 

Luka looks like he knows where he's going. It's probably fine. They'll probably be fine. 

* * *

"This is _not fine_ ," Chat Noir pants, clinging to a tree branch. 

In contrast, Ryuko flips down from a tree without ever appearing to notice Ladybug's outstretched hand. 

Ladybug rolls her eyes, but she doesn't look upset. She shifts to offer Chat Noir a hand down instead. He doesn't need it any more than Ryuko did, but he takes it anyway and lets her tug him gently down after her. "I did tell you this was a bad idea, kitty." 

"This!" He wheezes, waving around them at the unlit Square du Vert Galant, which is dark enough to be much more navigable for him than it is for his teammates. "This was not my idea! This is an entirely different idea!"

Ryuko turns back to them both, a grin flaring across her face that he still wishes he saw more often without a mask shielding her. "A better idea." 

"Oh it is _not_ ," Ladybug huffs, but she's trying not to grin, too. "Chat's idea was bad, that doesn't make yours _better_!" 

Chat Noir's heart pounds a little harder, though, when Ladybug glances at him and then away even while she insults his idea. There's a definite blush rising behind her mask, and even as she's insisting their ideas were both equally terrible she's not... she's not actually shooting them _down_. 

And as much as she's teasing them both (and he does recognise it as teasing, by now), she sobers quickly. 

"But, uh." Ladybug clears her throat, looking anywhere but at them. "I still... don't think this is the best idea. But it's-" She stands a little straighter. "It's not the worst, either, and I'm." She sighs and deflates, stepping closer to Chat Noir, and drops her voice low enough to register for only him. "I'm sick of not knowing. I'm sick of _worrying_ all the time, and these battles keep getting worse." 

Chat Noir doesn't look away from her. He doesn't think he can. He does lick his lips before raising his voice. "Ryuko?"

"Still here," she says dryly. 

Chat Noir barely manages to flick a glance over to Ryuko, just long enough to take in that she doesn't _look_ upset, before his attention is dragged right back to Ladybug as if magnetised. "Can you go stand guard?" 

He would think the salute she graces him with before flipping away was sarcastic, if he'd ever seen Kagami be sarcastic. As it is he's not sure _what_ to make of it.

"It's a little darker over here," Ladybug says quietly, sounding as nervous as he feels. "Follow me?"

 _Always_ , Adrien thinks, and he nearly says as much out loud but he ends up swallowing around the word instead. He's daydreamed about this so often that he's still not entirely convinced it's really happening. He definitely knows better than to push his luck. 

Ladybug stops where the interlacing branches above are a little thicker, enough that he's sure it's the darkest spot she could find. Even with Ryuko keeping watch, even knowing no one else would be out here- it's late, and no one wants to risk Hawkmoth finding them on Île de la Cité; even if Miraculous Ladybug will put everything to rights there are some cultural touchstones that no one wants to be responsible for destroying even temporarily-

Even with all their precautions, Chat Noir's heart is in his throat, and he sees Ladybug swallowing repeatedly like hers is too. 

"Do we-" He closes his eyes. "Should we have our eyes shut?"

Her laugh is shaky. "I think that defeats the point, Chat."

"I meant at first," he says sheepishly. He doesn't open his eyes again.

"I know." Her breathing slows, steadies. "-I think I have to, yeah." 

"Alright." He waits, but she doesn't add anything. "Should- should I go first?"

"Count of three?" Ladybug says, voice strained. " _On_ three, not after."

"Yeah." He reaches out blindly, not knowing why until her hands find his. They both fumble for a moment before their fingers are folded together between them. 

Ladybug's squeezing hard enough that Chat Noir has a moment of concern about doing this at the same time. If it weren't for his suit, he thinks her grip might be hard enough to cause real damage to his hands. 

"One," Ladybug says, and he hastily banishes that thought and any other doubts.

"Two," he says along with her, and realises he's squeezing back just as tightly.

They don't say three. 

"Spots off," Ladybug says, unsteadily, at the same time as Adrien's equally uneven, "Claws in."

They stand there for a moment longer before either of them realise what's wrong. 

"Both of our eyes are still closed, aren't they?" Ladybug asks, laughing a little now. Adrien hears another little laugh alongside hers, his heart rate rising as he realises it must be Tikki. 

Adrien laughs back, but he can't make himself let go of her hands. She doesn't seem ready to let go herself. "Yeah. Um. Count of three again?"

"You are both _way_ too dramatic, you know that?" Plagg snickers. "I'm taking my cheese and finding a good view." 

"Um, sorry about him," Adrien says sheepishly, as true to his word Plagg does phase through Adrien's overshirt for his cheese before flitting off somewhere.

"Don't worry about it, I think I needed the tension broken." By the way she shifts on her feet, though, Ladybug still is more than a little tense. She takes in a deep breath and holds it before saying, "One."

"Two..." Adrien shifts his feet slightly, not sure if he's actually on a more uneven patch of ground than he'd thought or if his legs don't want to hold him any more. Ladybug will still catch him if he faints, though, he's pretty sure. 

"Thre-" 

"Marinette!" 

Adrien jerks, eyes flying open despite himself, and finds it _is_ Marinette's hands he's holding. 

She doesn't see him at the same time after all, because she's jerked her head towards the sound of her name. 

" _Marinette_ ," Nino says, panting as he leans heavily against the nearest tree.

Adrien has no idea how Nino even _got_ here. They'd asked Ryuko to stand guard specifically _because_ they didn't think anyone would be able to get past without her noticing, how is Nino here? 

Luka steps out from the shadows next to Nino, which only confuses Adrien even more. 

"I told you I would remember the place. I thought this is where you'd take them," he says to Marinette playfully, and Adrien would really still like a moment to process that Marinette _is Ladybug_ , ideally without any more of his closest friends turning up unexpectedly. 

He is relieved that he hasn't ditched Marinette after all. He'd felt so _guilty_ sneaking off on her, and for anything else he wouldn't have done it, but he'd been so afraid that if they didn't do this tonight then Ladybug would change her mind after all. 

It also means he hadn't been imagining Marinette's apparent relief at turning to see him gone, and it's a weight off his mind that she'd only been relieved because it saved her from having to make her _own_ excuses. Kagami had looked less concerned but then he thinks Kagami had been more interested in spending the time with Marinette than with him- she sees a lot less of Marinette, usually.

"U-um," Marinette stammers, hands tightening on Adrien's again. "N-nino, I can- explain-" She stops, brows furrowing as something seems to occur to her, and she turns back to Adrien with aching slowness. 

He sees her eyes widen as she sees him for the first time, as she makes the same connections he already has, and she inhales sharply and lets it back out in a squeak as her eyes dart back to Nino and Adrien. "Y-yeah, I sure, uh, sure did. Except Kagami is, um, back a ways, she wanted to explore, Adrien and I can go get her-"

"We can go get Kagami," Luka suggests, resting a hand on Nino's shoulder as he steps past him. "You look like we interrupted something important." 

The burst of nervous laughter that startles out of Adrien and Marinette both probably convinces Luka that he's right about that, if not _how_ right, but it also calms Adrien down considerably. Marinette's Ladybug, and they were _both_ anxious about telling each other. 

"No, really, we can go get Kagami," Adrien assures Luka, feeling Marinette start to let go of his hands and then hesitate. Adrien runs his thumb over her fingers as comfortingly as he knows how before letting go, even though his hands twitch with the desire to hold on. "I'm pretty sure she won't come with you without us, anyway."

And he really wants a chance to react to each other _properly_ , and they can't do that with Luka and Nino both _right there_. 

"Kitty," Marinette whispers as soon as they're far enough into the trees, and when Adrien glances swiftly at her she's resolutely _not_ looking back at him and his heart falls.

Until he blinks and makes out the blush on her face, and then his hopes rise again.

And then Marinette's blush is contrasted against Ladybug's hissed, "There's no way Kagami won't figure out our identities now." 

Adrien blinks, trying to figure out a way around that, trying to pull his attention away from the happy repeat of _Ladybug is Marinette, Marinette is Ladybug_ that's all he really wants to think about right now. "We always knew that was a risk. I thought we decided she was an acceptable risk, though." 

From where they're following in the trees, Plagg groans and Tikki sighs. Their kwami hadn't ultimately protested this plan but they'd also both made it fairly clear that they weren't thrilled with it. Adrien's actually surprised Plagg doesn't have more to say about the way it's going, at least until he looks up and sees how closely his kwami and Ladybug's are following each other. 

Maybe their kwami's protests had died off for more reasons than Adrien had thought.

Marinette stops and drags one hand down her face. Now that Adrien's looking for it he can't help his delight at all the echoes of Ladybug he sees in every motion. "We did decide that, didn't we. We did, minou, but I-I guess I thought it wouldn't come to that." She groans as she starts walking again, slightly faster now. "We should have- _I_ should have thought of this. Luka showed me this spot, of course he'd know I might come here." 

"It's the middle of the night," Adrien points out carefully, trying to disguise his sudden shock of cold at _Luka showed me this spot_. He doesn't actually know what's going on between Marinette and Luka. At this point he barely understands what's going on between _himself_ and Luka. "Not really a time I'd expect him to think you were here?" 

"Yeah, usually," Marinette mutters, and sighs. "I-I'm supposed to be distracting you and Kagami until I hear from Alya, but I must have missed her check in." She looks incredibly guilty when she glances back at him. "And I was coming back for- for, well, _you_ , really, I would never normally have left but- but." She swallows and looks away again. Her voice is almost too quiet for him to hear when she says, "But you- Chat- asked, and you said you wanted it to be tonight, and I- you, I mean Chat Noir you, you're the only one I'd have left Kagami and Adri- _you_ for." 

Adrien's lips were already twitching into a faint smile as Marinette moved from guilty to frustrated, trying to specify between two people who are both _him_ , but he's smiling so hard it hurts at her admission that she'd only have left him for Chat Noir.

"And Kagami?" he teases, but gently, because Marinette does still look a lot more stressed than he feels. Adrien's coasting on too much undiluted joy right now for much else to find its way through; he's been trembling with anxiety and hope both for half the night, knowing that they'd planned for this and desperately afraid that Ladybug would decide it was too dangerous after all, and now that they _have_ told each other it's- it's better than any of his half-formed daydreams. 

Because, and he can admit this to himself now, because he's so happy that Ladybug is _Marinette._ His kind, thoughtful, amazing classmate is his _partner_ and while nothing could have made him love Ladybug any less, he's finding out that he _can_ love her _more._

"I do know where Kagami is." Marinette turns to him, raising an eyebrow, and it strikes Adrien that the further they move into the dark the more she acts like they're only out on patrol together. He wonders if she's really that much more comfortable around him with his mask on. He'd wonder why, except that he's never quite forgotten Marinette's confession to what she'd _thought_ was his statue, and he thinks now that the only thing that had kept him from taking her more seriously was his devotion to Ladybug. To _her_. 

He shakes his head, trying to pay better attention to her. "I thought you brought Ryuko because you decided she was the best choice?"

"She _is_ the best choice," Marinette defends, but weakly. "We can definitely count on her not to try and sneak a look, for one. She wouldn't-" Marinette winces. "She wouldn't try to find out who we are." 

"Neither would any of the others?" Adrien tries, confused, turning to tilt his head at her before remembering that she can't see him. "...Would they?" 

Marinette stops and sighs. She looks around and finds a tree to step behind, waving Adrien after her. 

...she wouldn't usually wave him after her. She'd usually have just taken hold of his arm or elbow (or tail) and pulled him after her, getting them behind cover quickly before explaining. Adrien has a sudden terrible foreboding about whether she's going to react to him more like Chat Noir or more like her classmate, now. 

Plagg dives down to his shoulder, clinging there stubbornly. "Good question, kid. _Would_ they?" 

Adrien winces a little, glad that Marinette won't see it in the dark. Plagg's not thrilled that _they_ haven't gotten to do much choosing as far as other superheroes. 

"Carapace and Viperion definitely wouldn't, but I know they aren't available." She rubs at her forehead. "Rena... I'm not totally sure about what Rena would do." She doesn't mention Queen Bee. She doesn't have to. 

Adrien is actually relatively certain Chloé _wouldn't_ try to find them out, but this has been nerve-wracking enough. Marinette's on edge enough around Chloé that he can see why she wouldn't want Chloé here. 

"Maybe we can still make this work," Marinette says, just barely under her breath, and then, "You think we're far enough away?"

"For- oh. To transform again?" Adrien considers it. "Probably? I don't think Luka or Nino followed us. Plagg?" 

"Think so." Plagg considers it for a moment. "From Nino, sure. Not sure about Luka. Tikki?" 

"We should be far enough," Tikki affirms, spiralling down out of the trees to land lightly on Marinette's shoulder.

Adrien still looks around carefully, stepping up closer behind Marinette as he does, and his heart clenches painfully when she flinches at his nearness. 

They've spent so much time and so many battles in each other's personal space. Adrien's not sure he can take it if Ladybug isn't comfortable with it _now_ , now when he's come to count on it so much, now when the way she's never minded casual touch between them is something he treasures. 

He doesn't say any of that. It might be nothing, anyway. It might just be that they've only had _minutes_ to react to learning each other's identities. Adrien, at least, had been counting on a little more time to talk in private. He thought that Ladybug had been too, but Marinette admitting she'd missed a check-in from Alya has given has given rise to more than a little painful doubt.

Instead he tells her, "I don't see them anywhere. I think we're clear." 

"Alright." Marinette breathes in, moves slightly closer to him at last, and says softly, "Tikki? Spots on." 

Adrien can admit, if only to himself, that he stalls his own transformation to watch Ladybug's. He's happy that he does; he's happy to see the way she relaxes into the transformation, the way her confidence swells as her spots go on. 

He almost waits too long to transform himself. 

Ryuko is still waiting right where she said she'd be, but her eyebrows go up as Ladybug comes up to her. 

"Thanks for keeping watch," Ladybug says as Ryuko tenses before seeing that it's them. "But, uh, out of curiosity. If someone had just, oh, walked in from, let's say, that side of the island-" She points back at the direction Nino and Luka had appeared from. "Would you have seen them?" 

Ryuko blinks, but she's clearly genuinely considering the question. "It's possible that I could have missed someone from that direction. However, that's a very strange direction to come from. This late at night, at this time of year, in this weather?" She shrugs. "The chance was negligible enough that I chose to pay more attention to this direction, which is, after all, where you do sometimes still find, ah... celebrants out, even in this weather. For anyone to come from the direction you indicated they'd likely have been on the river itself initially, and it's not very likely that anyone was planning to disembark from one of the boats and come this way." 

"Oh yeah, of _course_ not," Ladybug mutters, shoulders slumping very slightly. 

Adrien nudges his shoulder into her own and gives her the best kitten eyes he can manage. 

Usually Ladybug only snorts at him and playfully shoves him off at that, so he's a bit off-balance at the way she flushes. 

"I'd better go drop you back off where your friends can find you." Ladybug's louder than she meant to be, if the way she winces and glances around guiltily afterward is any indication. "I'll- I'll see you in a few minutes, Chat, all right?" 

"All right," he agrees, confused, giving her his own wary glance. He doesn't see how she can possibly drop Kagami off to meet them if he's supposed to wait here- and he can't go with her, either, not unless they want to leave Luka and Nino wandering around wondering how they'd lost them so quickly. 

He blinks, the edges of her plan shimmering into existence the way they so often do in battle, and grins as he repeats, "All right. See you in a few minutes." 

He waits an extra moment until he knows she'll have gotten Ryuko far enough away, then detransforms and makes his own way back towards Nino and Luka. To his surprise, they look like they're deep enough into conversation with each other that he and Marinette probably didn't have to be _quite_ so careful. 

Then again, three different people just almost found them out. They probably do need to be as careful as possible.

Adrien almost wishes that Kagami did know, because he would like a lot more time to talk to Marinette about their identities than he seems likely to get now. 

Luka reaches out to put a hand on Nino's shoulder, stilling him, and looks up just as Adrien returns. "You're back!" He tilts his head, and Adrien notices with confusion that he still hasn't let go of Nino's shoulder. "Where's Marinette?" 

Adrien has to clear his throat a couple times before answering. He's just going to blame that on the weather, he thinks. "She went to get Kagami herself. We got, uh, kinda split up once we got here. Marinette had another idea for where Kagami got to, but we didn't want you to think we forgot about you?" he tries, and to his relief both Nino and Luka nod. "So... why _are_ you here, anyway?" And what were you doing showing Marinette this spot in the first place, he carefully doesn't add. He'd be a pretty terrible hypocrite if he did, anyway. It isn't like Luka hasn't shown _him_ plenty of hiding places along and under the bridges since they'd met, and it isn't like Nino doesn't tell him about all the hidden and protected places he finds when he's out ghost-hunting. 

"We can't tell you until Kagami and Marinette are back." Luka sounds faintly amused. "It'd ruin the surprise." 

"Surprise?" Adrien tilts his head, looking between Nino and Luka, focusing more on Nino when Nino doesn't meet his eyes. Nino is _much_ worse at keeping secrets than Luka is. "What kind of surprise did you wait for this time of night for? That we need the girls for?" 

Nino chokes, turning faintly red, and does not answer him.

Adrien feels a bit better about that when Luka looks just as confused about it as he feels. 

"You'll see once they're back," Luka says instead, finally letting go of Nino and moving to lean against the nearest tree instead. 

Now that Luka's moved, Adrien steps in closer to Nino and lets himself fall heavily against his side, laughing to himself as Nino lets out a grunt but catches him anyway. 

"Come onnn," Adrien whines, ducking his head to hide his grin as Nino sighs and wraps an arm around him, hauling him back upright. "I can keep a secret. I'm good at keeping secrets!" His grin grows until it hurts, because it's still sinking in for him that he and Ladybug have _told_ each other their secrets. Even if he never sees Father at all for the rest of the holidays this will always have been his best Christmas. 

Ladybug had insisted they should patrol every night leading up to the celebrations, too, ostensibly because there's been so many akuma. Adrien had already suspected that she had more reasons than just that, but she's never admitted to anything and he definitely hadn't wanted to press her about it. He's just relieved that he gets to spend his holidays _with_ her. With anyone, really, but he knows he wouldn't feel the same warm glow if it were anyone else insisting on meeting up every night until and even after Christmas. 

"You'll know anyway like ten minutes after Marinette and Kagami get back, dude." Nino moves a little closer to Luka, shivering as the wind picks up for a moment, cutting through them sharply. Adrien shivers himself; he doesn't feel the wind even half as much when he's transformed, he hadn't realised it was this cold out. 

Luka's close enough that he reaches out and ruffles Adrien's hair, smiling affectionately in a way that makes Adrien's heart trip over a beat. "It won’t be long, promise. And I know you’re as good as waiting as you are at keeping secrets.” 

"Doesn't mean I _want_ to be," Adrien tries weakly, but he's leaning into Luka's hand and curling further into Nino's warmth at his side and really, no matter what their surprise is, between this and learning his Lady's identity he's already having the best night of his life.

Luka ruffles his hair again and Adrien has to suppress a purr. Then the thought strikes him that he doesn't have to do that anymore when it's just him and Marinette, and he's sure his grin stretches a little bit into a lovesick smile. 

Nino's arm tightens around him briefly, and Adrien startles and tries to get a better grip on his expressions. He really _should_ be better than this at it by now- he literally does it for his job all the time. Somehow it's still hard to get a handle on his expressions around his friends. 

Nino also seems like he wants to say something, but he never does, because that's when a very out-of-breath Marinette and Kagami show back up. 

"Found her," Marinette says breathlessly, but by the way the girls are avoiding each other's eyes and the flush rising on Marinette's face even Adrien can guess there's a lot more to their abrupt arrival than that.

Marinette takes a deep breath, obviously resettles herself, and lets Kagami link arms with her as she says with a brightness Adrien thinks might be forced, "All right, Luka, lead the way!" 

"Why should I-" Luka starts, teasingly, but then he looks at the way the rest of them are deliberately tangled up in each other and rolls his eyes fondly. "Never mind. All right, everyone after me!" 

They do untangle themselves a bit to follow him, but not by much. Kagami and Marinette don't bother to let go at all, and Nino only shifts so that he has his arm linked with Adrien in the same way so that it's not so difficult to move through the trees.

"You know you're all being ridiculous right now, right?" Luka calls back, but he's met with only laughter. 

Adrien had been too anxious earlier to really appreciate the holiday decorations, but they're moving a lot slower now without having enhanced speed to fall back on. At least, not obviously- Adrien's pretty sure by now that their abilities _do_ transfer over to their civilian forms, no matter what Plagg says. 

He wonders guiltily what else Plagg has to say to him about revealing their identities. Plagg had known about the plan well in advance, of course, the same as Tikki had, because neither he nor Ladybug really tries to keep anything from their kwami. He knows that Tikki hadn't entirely approved, but had eventually said it was up to the two of them. Plagg had told him he'd withhold his opinion until _after_ they'd told each other. 

Adrien knows him well enough to know he's likely to hear a whole lot more of those opinions once Plagg can share them. 

Adrien is increasingly glad for those planned patrols. He's not sure how much privacy they're going to get tonight. 

He hears the Liberty before he sees it, which is fairly typical. Even if no one is actively playing an instrument Anarka usually does have music on and as far as she's concerned noise pollution laws are something that happen to other people. 

She's... not usually playing Christmas music, though. Both Juleka and Luka have said that their mom has a strict ban on Christmas music before the day itself. 

And then Adrien sees the ship. 

Adrien stops still, staring at the Liberty, distantly aware that Nino stopped with him and that Marinette and Kagami have stumbled into them. Marinette is actually resting a reassuring hand on Adrien's shoulder the way she would if he were still transformed, and Luka's turning back to them all with concern written clear across his face. 

The city decorations are always impressive. They'd started out pretty, and as Hawkmoth's attacks had increased they'd gone from pretty to _spectacular_ in an attempt to raise spirits and diminish chances of being akumatised. There's a display in the eighth arrondissement dedicated to the superheroes specifically and Adrien's gone over just to observe it more than once now. 

Compared to that, the lights and bows and- something Adrien can describe only as _fairy dust_ draped everywhere on the Liberty is more chaotic than anything. Every inch of the ship is decorated within an inch of her life, nearly obscuring even her name, leaving the boarding plank outlined in a flashing coloured pattern that's as dizzying as it is cheerful. 

"We weren't sure how much celebrating you two were gonna get to do," Nino says, softly, as Adrien stumbles with his eyes fixed on the ship. Nino glances back towards Kagami apologetically, then looks back to Adrien. "An' I know your dad was, uh, _not great_ about it last year, dude. We figured, this was we all know you're getting the kinda celebration you deserve." 

"We all?" Adrien says faintly, trying to ignore the rest of Nino's statement even as his spine prickles in discomfort. 

"There are... _more_ people involved in this?" Kagami says, sounding- well, not all that different to anyone not used to her, but to Adrien and probably Marinette as well Kagami sounds at least as shocked as he feels.

"There's-" Luka starts, and he's cut off by a splash. 

"They're here!" Kim surprises him by barrelling out the river, cheering and immediately attempting to hug Adrien, who lets go of Nino to step swiftly out of the way.

Now caught in Kim's overenthusiastic embrace and thoroughly drenched, Nino sighs. "Thanks for that, dude. Luka, any chance you got any clothes I can borrow?" 

"I'll look," Luka assures him, very obviously stifling a laugh. "Pretty sure I have something that will fit you.” 

"Are you coming onboard or not!" Alix yells, appearing over the side of the ship. She's grinning, and her lopsided Santa hat appears to have glitter on one side and not the other. "Get up here before Sabrina's dad shows up, everyone's gotta be on board!" 

Adrien shakes his head, hard, and drops back beside Marinette at last as they all trample over the boarding plank (carefully, since Adrien's not sure how much weight it holds). "So this is what you were distracting us for? How long have you known about this?" 

"Ah... a couple months," Marinette admits sheepishly, ducking her head. "It didn't really start out that serious... but I, I know your last Christmas didn't go so well, and Kagami, I know you haven't really had a party with friends before? Everyone got, um, _really_ enthusiastic about it really fast." 

"I fixed the decorations on the tree," Chloé calls from somewhere on deck, sounding oddly mollified. "They look _much_ less atrocious now." 

"Bet you my headphones she found a Queen Bee tree topper," Nino mutters, stifling laughter. 

Alya appears at the top of the plank, offering each of them a hand up in turn. She's sporting reindeer antlers rather than a Santa hat. "Oh no, _we_ did. Then we left her in charge of the tree so that she'd stop trying to rearrange everything else." Alya steps back once everyone's on board. Her glasses are sparkling with the reflection of the lights and water as she says, "Happy Christmas Adrien, Kagami. Surprise!" She waves them further on deck. "Food and drinks are kinda scattered around, I am pretty sure Alix and Nath are guarding the board games, I _know_ Max is guarding the video games. We're, uh, opening gifts in like an hour because we're pretty sure we're gonna get in trouble for this _eventually_ , but otherwise go nuts!" 

"We've got headbands!" Rose appears out of nowhere, holding up several more reindeer headbands, Santa hats, and several with tinsel-covered cat ears. 

Adrien reaches for one of those immediately, shooting Marinette a sideways smile, and sees her lips curl reluctantly in answer before she also reaches for cat ears. His are red where hers are green, which makes Adrien's heart thump in a way he's not sure is healthy. 

"What should we do first?" Kagami finally asks, standing just behind Adrien and Marinette and not accepting any of the holiday headbands. Rose shrugs and wanders off, presumably to offer them to someone else.

Adrien glances up as the music changes, realising for the first time what's been odd about it. Anarka _is_ playing Christmas music, but it's all or mostly all 8bit remixes with several Pirates of the Caribbean remixes thrown in.

"I contributed to the playlists, dude." Nino scratches the back of his head, expression sheepish. "You know how Luka's mom gets about Christmas music... she liked the idea of remixes, though. Starting to regret introducing her to them, honestly, I think she’s gonna keep playing these after Christmas, too.” 

" _You_ don't live here," Luka says dryly. "You're lucky I like you." 

"Marinette," Adrien says suddenly, catching a glimpse of one of the folding tables set up on deck and loaded with food. He barely knows where to _start_. "You made this?"

"Some of it," Marinette admits, tucking a stray bit of hair behind her headband. The cat ears don't want to settle on her head quite right, resting crooked over her pigtails, and when Adrien's eyes meet Kagami's over her shoulder he's sure he's not the only one hoping that Marinette will take her hair down. 

He definitely doesn't want her to feel pressured either way, so he returns to asking about the food. "What did you make? That's definitely what I want to start with!"

"Me too," Kagami puts in. The excitement colouring her voice is enough that Alya and Luka both look up sharply. "I can't wait to try anything you've made, Marinette! I'm sure it will be superior." 

Marinette made a whole lot more of the pastries and cookies scattered everywhere than she'll initially admit to. Alix turns up again and pesters Marinette into admitting it, which makes Adrien wonder when in the world Marinette's been _sleeping_. She's been out on patrol with him every night- she can't have left herself _any_ free time. 

To his amusement and delight, she also shows them to a smaller table full of different cheeses with a significant look at him. 

It takes some effort for Plagg to find a time when no one's looking, but Adrien stifles a fit of giggles when Plagg comes back and tries to stuff several rinds of cheese into his shirt.

"Plagg," Marinette whispers, and Adrien shivers as a thrill goes through him at hearing her address Plagg at all. "Plagg, it's okay, you'll have a box to get it home in, I promise." Her lip twitches as she adds, just as quietly, "Believe me, I needed a box for all Tikki's cookies, too."

Adrien laughs, thinking of the red flash he's seen amongst the tables every once in a while. "I don't think she thought she had enough." 

"I don't think _enough_ exists for them," Marinette says dryly, before Kagami comes back over and they have to hastily change subjects. 

But not only is Adrien glowing inside at getting to share his kwami's habits with Ladybug _without_ worrying about their identities, Marinette's more relaxed and laughing easier, too. He catches her giving him more than one searching glance after that, her eyes frequently flicking between his cat ear headband and his eyes, studying him like she's looking for any sign of Chat Noir in his civilian self. 

Or, possibly, he's projecting. He's definitely searching for any signs of Ladybug that he's been missing all along. He sees- he sees a lot, actually. When she's not skittish and stuttering at him, Marinette radiates that same self-confidence that he loves in Ladybug. He doesn't think her clumsiness is faked, but it's definitely not as pronounced when she's transformed, and Ladybug _has_ told him that she's clumsy. He doesn't notice it when she's transformed (Reverser notwithstanding), but then Tikki probably does have some influence. He's just never been sure how _much_. He's still not sure how much Plagg influences _him_.

Kagami is determined to drag them both over to the board games, but after two far-too-competitive rounds of Pictionary (Kagami insists on partnering with Marinette for both, and Adrien is secretly glad for it at the same time as he _desperately_ wants to be partnered with his Lady instead- he's not sure what their classmates would read into him and Marinette knowing each other so well, but he's sure they would read _something_ into it), everyone else abandons the game in a hurry.

No one wants to play any card games after that, strangely enough. Well, Kim still does, but no one else. 

Adrien slides in behind Max and Mylene by the video games, only to find out that they're playing Max's still-in-beta game rather than anything else. Mylene is stubbornly refusing to change characters from Copycat, which makes Adrien laugh under his breath. He'd have expected her to insist on a Ladybug character, but- maybe not. It looks like they haven't been playing long enough to unlock Ladybug's actual character model and Mylene probably doesn't want to play as Antibug. Even this much later he thinks Mylene avoids Chloé more than almost anyone else in their class does. 

They don't get a chance to join the informal video game tournament, to his disappointment. Nino appears behind them partway through, wearing an unfamiliar Jagged Stone shirt and vest, and announces, "Gifts are now, apparently we're on some kinda time crunch now?" 

"You don't sound sure of that," Adrien observes, but he stops trying to decide on a character and follows after Nino instead, Marinette right beside him. He can't help looking at her again, catching her looking back, and gives her the brightest smile he can manage in turn. 

She looks a little dazed.

It's a good thing they have a patrol planned for later, because he's definitely not going to be able to sleep tonight. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS

"Who's first?" Nathaniel calls out from half under the tree, handing a gift off to Marc and going right back to rummaging. "Uh, fair warning, guys? These are... there are _not_ an even amount of gifts here. Who was in charge of gift planning, anyway?" 

Silence answers him. 

"Oh, no one, okay then," Nathaniel says. He's muffled by how far under the tree he's gotten now, but his exasperation is still clear. "That... that explains a lot, actually. Chloé, are the ones back here _all_ for Adrien?" 

"Um." Adrien rubs the back of his neck, wrenching his gaze away from Marinette as he flushes. "I don't really need gifts? I can share, maybe?" 

Chloé's hissed "Oh don't you _dare_ ," is crowded out by Ivan's gentle, "Maybe open them and see what they are first?" Ivan nods at a different pile next to him, one with much less professional-looking wrapping. "Other people brought stuff too, anyway. Everyone's got at least one gift." He looks a little sheepish. "Uh, except for Luka, I think." 

"No, Luka has a gift too," Kagami says abruptly. "More than one. There's a few over here, by the keyboard?" For the first time she sounds a little uncertain. 

Adrien can understand why. The Liberty's chaos is a _lot_ to get used to. He's loved it since the first time he was over to play that keyboard, and the times he's snuck out to join Kitty Section since have only made him more attached. He's liked getting to know Juleka and Rose and Ivan better, and it didn't take him long to discover that what Marinette sees in Luka, Adrien sees too. 

Which seems fitting, now, when she's been spending time with him and Kagami. Adrien knows, distantly, that Kagami can be sort of hard to get to know. He thinks she might have had a rough start with Marinette, from things both of them have alluded to. 

They're certainly good friends _now_. Adrien's honestly a little afraid that if Chloé decides to make any disparaging comments about Marinette tonight, Kagami might produce a sword in her defence. He wouldn't be surprised. 

There's no sign of Lila, at least. No one's mentioned her at all. She'd said that she would be out of the country over the holidays, but Adrien had assumed it was a lie. 

If she's missing this party, when Nathaniel's even brought Marc with, then maybe she actually hadn't been. For once. He's sure not going to worry about it. 

"Adrien first! Adrien first!" Rose cheers, popping up out of nowhere and startling Marc enough that they trip over Nathaniel, landing in a tangle that _just_ misses knocking over the tree. Ivan reaches down and sets them back upright easily, giving Rose a look that's too fond to truly be annoyed. 

Adrien _really_ wishes he made it to band practise more often. Maybe now that Marinette knows exactly how he's been sneaking out she'll help him get over here more often. She probably wouldn't mind coming over more herself, anyway; he knows she likes Luka. 

He falters, thoughts suddenly catching and turning on themselves. 

He... _does_ know she likes Luka. And Ladybug's always turned him down, because she likes someone else.

He's always had the bittersweet thought that he probably _would_ like whoever it is Ladybug's turned him down for, if only because he's sure anyone she likes that much has to be amazing. He's not sure how much he likes finding out he's right. 

He doesn't have very long to be annoyed about it, because Juleka drops a gift into his hands, nudging his shoulder and mumbling something. She's smiling, though, so he assumes it's something positive. 

Adrien looks down at the gift, which is alarmingly sword-shaped and not one of the ones wrapped in nicer paper. "I don't have to go first, you know? I don't mind someone else going-" 

Kagami immediately tears open her gift, to muffled giggles from Marinette. 

Adrien blinks and looks between them. _He_ hadn't been expecting that, but apparently Marinette had. 

Kagami takes an odd cylindrical handle out of her box and frowns at it, turning it over, before glancing at Marinette herself. 

"The button on the side," Marinette says, obviously enjoying herself. "The green one. Press it." Her grin grows. "And keep your hands out of the light."

Adrien's eyes widen as he feels the weight of his own gift again. It's light for its shape, and he's fairly certain he feels that same distinct handle. 

Adrien doesn't protest being the next one to open a gift.

Max made them both lightsabers. 

With Markov's help, he made them both _working_ lightsabers. 

" _Please_ tell me those things have a safe mode," Mylene begs, watching Kagami and Adrien try to face off against each other without actually getting up to race off to a different part of the deck. 

"They're _in_ safe mode," Max assures her, pushing his glasses up until they reflect both sabers. "See the blue lights on the handles? That means they're in safe mode. If safe mode is off, they'll turn-" 

"Red?" Alya asks, leaning over and addressing Markov, who's paying closer attention to the lightsabers at the moment than Max is. "Markov, is he about to say _red?_ " 

Adrien accidentally slices part of Kagami's sleeve. It slides off and flutters to the deck.

They both stare at it, eyes wide and guilty. 

"Red," Markov confirms, and Adrien's not sure how long Markov's been able to sigh, but he can definitely do it now. 

"I'll fix it," Marinette assures them both, leaning around Kagami to take her sleeve and study it intently. She sits back a minute later, apparently pleased with what she saw. "Hey Nino, you're closest. Is there a gift for me from Rose over there?"

"Aw, you know," Rose says, disappointed, but she brightens again immediately. "You do know! And you already need it!"

"I will never not need your emergency sewing supplies," Marinette promises her, but she pauses as Alya dumps three gifts into her lap instead of only one.

Alya's fiercely joyous expression is the opposite of reassuring.

Adrien sees that Marinette, too, has a suspiciously sword- or rather, _lightsaber_ \- shaped gift and starts grinning himself.

(He wonders if there's some way to get these as Ladybug and Chat Noir without raising any suspicion. He's already itching with the urge to spar with them, he can't imagine how much more fun it's going to be transformed).

To his slight disappointment, Marinette opens Rose's gift and sets to work on Kagami's sleeve immediately rather than joining in with what is now very _obviously_ a third lightsaber. When Adrien checks again, he's delighted to find that _most_ of the class seems to have those. Mylene, Ivan, Marc and Max himself don't, but Adrien's not that sure how much use any of them would have for it, either. Max just seems happy for the chance to build them.

"Hey, someone else open something," Kim calls, from close enough to the railing that Alix has a cautionary hand on his arm. Unlike Nino, Kim hasn't bothered to change into dry clothes.

There's probably no _point_ in Kim changing into dry clothes. Adrien's faintly surprised he’s not back in the river already.

"Adrien, you should go again," Luka says brightly, leaning into Adrien's space and nodding at another gift that's not in Chloé-wrapping. "You should open that one." 

"I don't want to tear that wrapping paper until I _have_ to," Adrien protests, laughing, and turns to make faces at Nino when he hears his friend's snort. "It's Christmas puns! You can't make me tear up _Christmas puns_ , Nino!" 

"I can and I will!" Alya shouts, pretending to threaten him with her still-wrapped lightsaber, and that sparks Kim and Alix tearing open their own lightsabers without waiting for anyone else. That seems to dissolve the order entirely, and Adrien... freezes a bit, actually, because he doesn't know what to do now. He has no idea if he's meant to keep opening gifts or not, or if he's supposed to wait, or if they're trying to go in some kind of order, or-

Marinette reaches across Kagami to grab Adrien's wrist, squeezing more than hard enough to distract him. 

He looks up at Marinette as Kagami moves just enough to be out of their way. Marinette's eyes are bright with determination, even if her smile still looks a little lopsided and she can't seem to stop studying _his_ eyes. Adrien finds he doesn't mind that, not from her; not when he knows that she's picturing him with green sclera and trying to slot the two together in her mind the same way he's imagining Ladybug's mask on Marinette's face. 

He hopes she feels the same jolt of happiness at whatever mental image she's building that _he_ does. 

"You can open something else, you know," she says, softly enough that Alix and Kim's mad yells as they try to duel each other and nearly fall off the ship cover her voice. Realising that, she adds, "You _should_ open Luka's, kitty." 

Adrien picks up the gift with Sandy Claws wrapping paper, still looking at her, feeling uncomfortably like he's asking her permission. He also still doesn't want to open Luka's gift just yet. He's not entirely joking about not wanting to rip the paper. 

"If you want to," Marinette adds, her brows furrowing. "You don't have to, you have others." 

"I..." Adrien hesitates, looking down at the pile of gifts Marc and Nath have tumbled together in front of him. "I don't... you didn't have to do this. Any of you." He swallows, acutely aware that more than one person has stopped what they're doing to pay attention to him. "I don't- need anything." 

"Dude," Kim says, leaning dangerously far back over the railing and fending Alix off one-handed. "It's not about _needing_ things, you know? It's a holiday!" He gestures with his lightsaber, forcing Rose and Sabrina to duck and taking off one of Sabrina's reindeer antlers. "We _wanted_ to get you stuff." 

"Yeah, dude," Nino says, picking up a gift from the bottom of the pile and tossing it lightly to Adrien. "We know you don't really _need_ any of it, that's not why we got it. We wanted you to have stuff _from us_."

"You too, Kagami." Alya scoops up a gift to hand to Kagami as well. "We might not know you all that well yet, but we'd like to. We know how much Marinette and Adrien like you and we're not about to let them keep you for themselves!"

"Oh." Adrien's voice comes out far fainter than he intends as he turns the gift over in his hands, avoiding anyone's eyes. 

Kagami fares even worse, sitting very stiffly and blinking rapidly enough that Adrien knows she's trying hard _not_ to show her reaction. He doesn't blame her, even if he's sad to see that's still her first response. 

"Come on, who's it from?" Alix calls, trying to stab Kim.

A moment later there's a loud splash and Alix unenthusiastically shouts "Man overboard!" up at Anarka, who still hasn't come down from the wheelhouse. 

Anarka pops her head out. "There's a life raft on your side, love, but I think you'd be better off waitin' for your friend to come back on his own. Does like the water, that one." 

"Aww." Alix doesn't sound too put out, except maybe at the sudden lack of sparring partner. "Hey, Ivan-"

"No," Ivan says flatly.

"Nath? Marc?"

"No and no," Nathaniel says, ducking around the tree to use it as a shield. He tugs Marc after him. 

"Sabrina?" Alix tries, with far less hope. 

Sabrina hesitates and looks to Chloé. 

Chloé rolls her eyes and hands her the still-wrapped lightsaber she's been holding. "Go. Put her in her place." 

Sabrina brightens to the point where Adrien half-expects her to salute. "Absolutely! You can count on me!"

"A new challenger appears!" Alix roars as Sabrina tears the wrapping paper away and barrels down on her. "One, two, fi- oh shit!" Alix derails into cursing as Sabrina launches a surprisingly vicious attack, moving far faster than Adrien would have guessed her capable of. 

"There's no _activate_ button for Chloé's lightsaber, is there," Marinette murmurs, thumb slipping across Adrien's wrist and briefly stealing the breath from his lungs. 

Max fixes his glasses and sighs heavily. "Perceptive as always, Marinette. No, while I didn't think it was fair to leave her out, I _did_ think it was fair to ensure no accidents were likely." 

Marinette raises one eyebrow and Adrien twists to see Sabrina enthusiastically trying to stab Alix.

Alix is glancing over the side of the ship like she's considering joining Kim overboard. 

"...The likelihood _is_ decreased by an eighty-five percent minimum," Max tries, weakly. 

Kagami starts tearing open another gift, evidently tired of waiting. 

She pulls out a scarf in deep red and blinks at it until she turns it over and finds a detailed dragon picked out in black thread. "This is very well-made." 

"Thank you," Marinette says, or squeaks, rather. 

"And very soft," Kagami adds, winding the scarf around her shoulders immediately. It falls almost naturally into a drape that spreads the dragon's wings across her back.

"Thank you, Marinette." She turns to Adrien. "Open something." 

Adrien's already scrambling to see whether _he_ has anything from Marinette. 

Marinette starts giggling, watching him, and finally offers slyly, "Actually, I helped with Luka's. That's from both of us." 

Adrien gives her a betrayed look. "Why are you _determined_ to make me tear apart puns?" 

Alya opens her mouth, and shuts it when Nino starts shaking his head frantically.

"Do not give them ammunition," Nino hisses when Alya gives him a confused look. "Trust me on this, dude, do _not_ do the thing." 

"Open something already," Alix yells from starboard, where Sabrina has her pinned and doesn't appear to know what to do next. "Either open something or help me out over here!"

Juleka shrugs and gets up, accepting a lightsaber of her own from Rose and muttering something as she goes to help Alix. 

Adrien's halfway through opening his gift from Marinette and Luka before he realises it. 

"This is..." He blinks, hands running over the fabric absently. It's softer than it looks, but coming from these two specifically that's not a huge surprise. "Is this a Kitty Section jacket?" 

"Yeah," Luka says, voice coloured with affection as he lays a hand next to Adrien's and traces his way up to the logo proudly displayed on the back. The last Adrien had known they hadn't _had_ a logo. "Marinette finished the designs. The rest of us don't have ours yet, but we wanted to get yours to you early. We, uh-" Luka falters for the first time, running a hand through his hair, and his smile turns a little lopsided. "We know you don't get to come to practise as often as you'd like, we didn't want you to think we didn't _want_ you here." 

"Seriously, a little help!" Alix sounds more frantic than before. 

Adrien starts to turn, but Rose and Nathaniel are already making their way over. 

"Thank you," Adrien says, already getting up to pull the jacket on. Luka tugs it more firmly into place before Adrien can sit back down, which Adrien doesn't think anything of until he sees the weird look on Nino's face and pauses. 

Nino shakes his head and mouths, "I'll tell you later," so Adrien shrugs further into the (very _warm_ ) jacket and sits back down. 

"Will you finally open one of mine already," Chloé whines, startling him. He realises, slowly, that he's ended up in a smaller circle that includes Marinette, Kagami, Luka, Chloé and Nino and Alya- most of their classmates are trying to help either Alix or Sabrina (he's not sure why Nathaniel decided to take Sabrina's side, except that maybe it seemed like it would be more fun), and Max, Marc and Markov are deep in their own discussion on the other side of the tree by now. 

Adrien's also pretty sure Ivan and Mylene have been doing their own gift exchange for the past ten minutes. 

"Just open one," Marinette whispers, and Kagami snorts quietly. 

Adrien opens another gift, tearing faster when Kagami reaches out to start tearing paper off _for_ him, and blinks down at the video game he's holding. He hadn't expected Chloé to even think about video games, much less actually find one that he would _like_. 

"Wow. Thanks, Chloé," he says quietly, turning the game over to read the back and absently ducking as Rose's swing goes wild. 

Chloé sniffs, but she's smiling, and then she even goes as far as admitting, "The others helped." 

Adrien looks up and finds Nino, who shrugs at him and says, "Hey, dude, don't look at me. I had a better idea what you already _had_ , but Max is the one who came up with what to get you _based_ on that." 

It turns out most of the gifts are like that. Nothing's really from one person alone, except for the cat-ear headphones Nino got him; everything had input from at least two other people. Chloé really does appear to have wrapped everything else, or at least paid someone to wrap everything else, and a couple of the more expensive gifts have her name on the tag, but even those feel like more than one person decided on them. 

And Adrien learns quickly that he cares far more about that, that display that his friends were _thinking_ about him, than he does about the gifts themselves. 

Kagami's opening her last gift- she had nearly as many as him, though none of hers were personal save Marinette's scarf and an engraved Swiss army knife from Luka, but then the rest of his classmates don't know her well yet- when Adrien finds out exactly why they'd had a time limit. 

Jagged Stone either never learned the meaning of subtlety, or never bothered to care. 

They hear him before they see him, thankfully, because it means they can get Kim out of the water before Jagged Stone's _barge_ hits him. Adrien tries and fails to figure out where and how Jagged Stone got a barge at this time of night, but it swiftly doesn't matter because Jagged leaps onto the Liberty as soon as he can. 

Fang tries to leap after him and belly flops into the river.

"I'll go get him," Penny says, sighing, and waves to Anarka before going to fetch the crocodile. 

"I heard we're celebrating early here, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Jagged dodges a wayward lightsaber without appearing to find it the least bit odd. Most of the combatants stopped as soon as Jagged Stone showed up but Sabrina appears to be working through some issues.

Adrien would not have gotten out of the way in time if Luka hadn't hooked one arm around his elbow and pulled him hurriedly to the side. Kagami _doesn't_ get out of the way in time, and ends up caught in the rib-cracking hug Jagged Stone delivers to Marinette. 

"Fine," Marinette wheezes once she's been set back down, wobbling a little before slumping into Kagami and grinning weakly up at the rockstar. "How's the new album going?" 

"Well enough for us to take a break for the night." Jagged eyes the deck and grins knowingly. "And it looks like we're far from the only ones!" 

"Jagged," Penny says, sighing as she makes it back onboard. Fang barrels past her to fetch up at Jagged's feet, but Adrien thinks Kim is already eyeing the river again. "We should _not_ be taking a- you know what, forget it." She tilts her head back, shielding her eyes against the abundance of Christmas lights. "Anarka, I assume you're home."

"A bold assumption!" Anarka shouts back from the wheelhouse, though she's lounging fairly far out the window now and not remotely trying to hide.

"You _live_ -" Penny sighs again and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I'm going to go join the kids." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have outgrown nothing at all, thanks

**Author's Note:**

> twins girlfriend used that sandy claws wrapping paper one year and the rest of us were like 'okay you win'


End file.
